Wire framework for RSA website

The Royal Society of Arts launches its Inclusive Design Resource website next week, which aims to help designers, manufacturers and service providers ensure that their designs are accessible to the widest possible audience.

Created by Wire Design, the resource will provide access to information on strategies, tools and methods that can assist designers in acknowledging demographic shifts, anti-discrimination legislation and the need to prevent certain groups from being marginalised by technology.

The idea was proposed by Professor Roger Coleman, director of the RSA’s Helen Hamlyn Research Centre, as a way of extending the Centre’s I-Design programme, which expired in 2003.

‘The site brings together a lot of contextual information and has to be as inclusive as possible [itself],’ says Sue Hewer, head of design at the RSA.

Funding to pay for management for the next year is in place, after which the RSA will need a new round of investment to maintain and develop the site, says Hewer. The Society’s fellows and students will continue to assess the Inclusive Design Resource following its launch.

Ross Lovegrove, RSA Royal Designer for Industry, will launch the website – www.rsa.org.uk/ inclusivedesign – in London next Wednesday.